Beginning, Middle, No End
by Lady PhoenixFeathers
Summary: Hermione was enjoying her lunch with the twins. Chocolate sundae's, laughing, fun. Nothing could ruin the beautiful day. Wrong.
1. 36 Seconds Past The Hour

"It's too hard!"

"Oh, honestly Ronald, it's a job application, not rocket science." Hermione huffed.

"Rocke- What?" Ron said, puzzled.

Hermione sighed, "Muggle thing, don't worry". Hermione shook her head impatiently, "Ron, all you have to do is write down your skills, job experience, and hour preference". Ron had been trying to write an application to work at Zonko's for over four hours, and Hermione, who was helping him, was getting frustrated.

"But I don't have any skills _or _previous work experience!" Ron exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air in an impatient manner.

"Then just write that!" Hermione followed suit and also threw her arms in the air, "Unbelievable! You've been sitting here for four hours and you've only written 'dear Sir/Madame'"

"Can't you just do it for me?" Ron asked, pathetically. Hermione, in turn, shot Ron a death glare.

"Look Ron-" Hermione said in a dangerously low voice, "-I never did a Hogwarts assignment for you, so I'm sure as heck not going to do this."

Ron sheepishly turned back to the basically empty parchment and stared at it while Hermione tried to regain her composure, just as Fred and George strolled into the living room of The Burrow where Hermione and Ron were seated.

"What's up Ickle-Ronnikins?" The twins chorused.

"Shut it. I'm busy." Ron snapped back, but the twins merely smirked.

"Yeah, we can tell, must have taken a lot of effort to write, how many words was it again George?" Fred started,

"Oh, I'm not sure, let me count, 1…2…3…" George continued,

"_3!_ That's outrageous, my goodness George, we have a genius in our midst!"

"I know Fred, 3 words in four hours, quite the feat,"

"Indeed, George."

"Oh put a sock in it you two, Ron's busy…deliberating…and he doesn't need you mocking him" Hermione gave the boys a stern look and the twins laughed and sat down next to her and Ron on the floor. Hermione sighed,

"Ron, lets just do this tomorrow, think about what you want to put in the application, okay?" Hermione concluded.

"That sounds like a smart idea, seeing as these two-" Ron pointed at the twins, "-won't be allowing me to do anything productive anytime soon." Ron stood up, gathered his things and promptly left the room, but not before giving the twins one last cold glare.

Fred turned to George and winked at him, making George flush and look away. Hermione noticed this and decided to ask Ron if something was going on later. It was either something fishy or they were just planning a prank.

"So, _Hermy_." Fred started, emphasising her nickname, knowing how much she hated it. Ron had tried to call her it but he only ended up with an extremely large nose as a consequence. "How's life?" Fred smiled resting his chin in his hand, while his elbow was resting on his crossed leg.

Hermione quickly felt uncomfortable under Fred's intense gaze and shifted her seating position.

"Um, it's alright…" Hermione avoided Fred's eyes, instead finding great interest a tassel on the end of the rug.

"Oh come on Hermione, you're so uptight, you need to loosen up, be free," Hermione felt like giving Fred a bat-bogey hex for calling her 'uptight', but relented. "Hey! I have an idea, why don't you come with George and I to Diagon Alley tomorrow for lunch. What do you say? George and I would be _ever _so delighted," Fred winked at George again. What was with that winking?

"Yeah, delighted…" George shifted uncomfortably; Hermione noticed he had turned a nice shade of crimson. Strange. Hermione had never seen George so unpoised. Hermione was lost in her thoughts when she saw a hand wave in front of her face.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Fred looked at Hermione intently, expecting an answer, "Will you come with us? Will you will you will you? Oh please Hermione!" Fred begged.

"Um, I guess I could-"

"Excellent! Meet you in this exact spot at 12 o clock p.m. tomorrow, exactly 36 seconds past the hour." Fred said excitedly, standing up and checking his watch.

"Why so exact?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

"No reason, just testing you." Fred smiled before leaving the room, with a quiet George trailing behind. Hermione was left perplexed as to why Fred and George of all people would invite her to lunch. Oh well, Hermione thought, it's a free lunch. Hermione shrugged to herself before gathering her belongings and going upstairs to read.


	2. 6 Scoop Banana Split Sundae

Hermione waltzed into the living room of The Burrow, with approximately 40 seconds to spare, she did as she was told and stood exactly where her, Fred and George had been sitting the night before. 12:00:10. 12:00:19. 12:00:27. 12:00:33. 12:00:35.

POP, "Howdy Hermione! How's it going?" The twins chorused after apparating to her side. Hermione had been so shocked her heart was palpitating, and she didn't dignify them with an answer. Well not an answer involving words that is.

She fainted, and rather ungracefully, too.

Hermione flopped to the floor and the twins stood dumfounded staring at her, then at each other, then at her again.

"What in merlins name…?" Fred started, before George quickly realized what was going on and dropped to his knees next to her and started shaking her lightly.

"Hermione? Hermione? Wakey wakey, rise and shine!" George tried to rouse her.

Fred smirked and dropped to his knees too. "Nice George. You two look great together you know, her on the floor, you shaking her lightly, it just looks picturesque." Fred smirked and winked.

"Shut it, now help me get her back to the land of the living."

"Why don't you kiss her? She might be like snow white," Fred laughed, earning a swat to the head.

"Shut up, you better not have told anyone what I said about her to you." George said seriously.

"Mate, my lips are sealed. Maybe you could seal hers with a kiss" Fred gestured to Hermione and earned himself another swat to the head.

"Quiet, I think she's waking up." Hermione slowly opened her eyes and looked at George then Fred, and a frown formed on her face slowly.

"Hey Hermione, what's up?" George asked casually.

"Not too much…except, WHY THE BLOODY HELL AM I ON THE FLOOR?" Hermione shouted.

The boys laughed and helped her up. "We drastically over-estimated your shock threshold." Fred laughed.

Hermione flushed a few shades of red and brushed herself off. "Very well then, I assume lunch is in order?" Hermione asked, trying to be poised.

"Indeed it is! Now, best be off then." George said offering Hermione his arm, which she took allowing herself to be pulled via apparation to Diagon Alley. Before the feeling of being yanked at from behind the navel took place, Hermione noticed Fred give George a quick wink and smirk to which George shot him a deathly glare.

The trio landed in Diagon Alley, which was swarming with people. Generally people felt safer to wander freely ever since the demise of Voldemort a few months prior. Although there was still the threat of Death Eaters attacking at any moment, many witches and wizards felt it was not a big situation, since they had no real leader any attack would be faulty and most likely foiled quickly. Ministry folk were continuing to warn of the impending dangers of being out in the open with such a large threat surrounding everyone. Alas, no matter how many times everyone was warned, no one took the Ministry seriously after the Cornelius Fudge scandal. According to the general public, they were just a bunch of 'nut-jobs'.

How wrong they were.

"So, Hermione, how does a 7 scoop ice-cream sundae sound?" Fred questioned after arriving next to Hermione and George.

"I thought you were taking me out to lunch, not 'lets get fat time'." Hermione huffed.

George scoffed, "_fat?_ You couldn't get fat even if you tried! You're so skinny and small and cute." George flushed at he realised he had just called Hermione _cute_, of all things, whereas Fred stifled laughter and Hermione stared at George as if she had just been confundus charmed.

"Um. Thank-you, I guess?" Hermione managed to say; to this George mumbled something like 'you're welcome'.

Fred finally regained enough composure to speak again and said "Well, that settles things, to the ice-cream parlour!" Fred announced and strode off in the direction of the ice-cream parlour. Hermione awkwardly looked at George and started following an enthusiastic Fred.

The three of them walked into the ice-cream parlour and were immediately greeted with an array of colourful ice cream. Fred quickly skipped over to the counter and ordered his followed by George, while Hermione continued to deliberate her choices. After a few minutes of deliberation, Hermione settled on the banana split sundae, with 6 scoops of her choice, she chose: Loopy Lemon, Magnificent Mango, Super Strawberry, Radical Rainbow and Cool-Cat Chocolate.

She told the lady behind the counter her order and after making a joke about the use of alliteration on the ice cream names, which nobody apart from herself understood, the trio sat down outside in the sunshine to eat their mountains of calcium.

"MY GOODNESS!" Hermione exclaimed after her first bite of her ice cream, "THIS IS AMAZING! So much nicer than Muggle ice cream."

The boys laughed at Hermione's enthusiasm, and dug into their own piles of cold cream.

The group sat joking about random things and having long discussions about pointless topics and soon completely forgot about the previous centre of attention; the ice cream. When the group stopped joking long enough to realize their ice cream was now just colourful soup, they got up and strolled down Diagon Alley.

Hermione was having an amazing time, she had never been very close to Fred and George so today was sort of a 'get-to-know' session for the three of them. Hermione hoped to become close friends with the twins because they made her feel happy. Not just happy as in 'I just passed my NEWTS with flying colours' happy, but truly happy. Inside and out.

The trio strolled down Diagon Alley with no real destination in mind.

"…And then I said, 'That's not chocolate!'" Fred finished his story while Hermione and George were doubled over with laughter. Fred joined in laughing too.

"Oh my goodness Fred, that was the most hilarious story I've ever hear-" Hermione was cut off by a sudden loud bang and a woman's high pitched, blood curdling, scream.

The group immediately stopped laughing and stood upright looking in the direction of where the noise had come from.

'_Oh no'_, was all Hermione could conclude.


	3. Large, Blunt Object

Hermione was never agile or sporty as a child; she never really aspired to be. She dedicated her life to learning as much as possible and getting a good job and a degree. She basically lived in the library and books and didn't have many friends so she never got to play games like tag which would have given her a bit more practise at being fast and being able to run a marathon.

But god would have astounded young Hermione astounded to see herself now.

Hermione was running with all her strength, followed closely by George and Fred. Death Eaters had done what the Ministry had anticipated so long; they had attacked.

The Death Eaters had apparated into the centre of Diagon Alley and exploded it all, from the ground up, all of it. This is why Hermione, Fred and George were currently running for their lives.

Death Eaters were close on their tail, Hermione would have apparated but she needed to make sure Fred and George would be alright and she didn't have enough time to grab out her wand.

The Death Eaters were gaining on the trio. Fast. Hermione concentrated on being as fast as possible and not trippi-

Never mind. Hermione couldn't believe it she tripped! Of all the moments to trip up, now was not one she would have elected.

She squealed and dropped face first to the ground, gaining a nice scratch to the forehead. George and Fred whirled around at the exact same time and yelled her name,

"HERMIONE!" They chorused. As she had expected, Hermione felt herself being pinned to the ground by cold hands. This was it, she had been caught, and she was done for.

Hermione was grabbed by the scruff of her collar and yanked upwards, onto her knees, so she was facing Fred and George.

"GO!" she screeched, noticing more Death Eaters hurrying towards Fred and George.

"NO!" the twins chorused once again.

"Fred, go tell mum and dad, get help, go," George commanded.

"But-"

"GO! HURRY!" Fred squeezed his eyes shut and nodded, he opened them and quickly reached for his wand, a tear streaking down his face, he mouthed 'I love you' to George and was gone with a pop.

George reached for his wand and opened his mouth to scream a spell, but a Death Eater who came bounding up to him blasted it out of his hand and crucio'd him onto the ground.

George cried out in pain and Hermione screamed his name, before dissolving into tears.

"Stupid boy. How _dare_ you attempt to injure a Death Eater." The Death Eater released the curse on George and he lay there quiet but breathing heavily. "And you," He turned to Hermione, "you little bitch, I remember you, you're friends of that swine Potter. He killed my master and you aided him. You will be punished _severely_."

"Shut it, I'm not afraid of you and your insane cult", Hermione spat. The Death Eater chuckled and she saw him bend over to pick something up. He straightened up and walked over to Hermione. Only then could she see what he was holding. He swung the large, blunt object, some may refer to as a 'rock', and it came in contact with Hermione's skull with a loud crack and the last thing Hermione heard was George's strangled cry and everything went black.


	4. Ten Million Sectumsempra's

**DISCLAIMER: The beautiful, J.K. Rowling owns this story, not me. Honestly I don't even know if I own these pants.**

**Congratulations to SJMuggle, my first reviewer! Yay! I'm repeatedly face palming reading the chapters because I keep noticing faults and sentences which make absolutely no sense. Oh well, I have an excuse- I generally write late at night and have to keep blinking to keep my eyes open so not noticing a grammar-error won't be uncommon. Anyway, thank-you in advance to those who have enough patience to read this story, and since I forgot it the last few times I have done a disclaimer and whatnot above. Now, on with the show, er- story! **

Hermione slowly slipped into consciousness and was immediately greeted by a sharp pain in her forehead. She clapped her hand to the source of the pain instinctively and soon felt dampness on it. Hermione was confused; surely she hadn't been outside in the rain, so there was no reason to have a wet forehead, along with pain.

Hermione wondered if Molly was down in the kitchen cooking breakfast yet because she felt quite peckish. Ouch, Hermione never remembered the mattress being so hard, or cold. And where was her pillow? This was odd. How she wished George would stop whimpering, it was driving her insane. Hang on.

Whimpering? Why was he whimpering? Even more important, why in the name of Merlin was he in her room!

Hermione threw her eyes open and sat up quickly, causing her head to hurt intensely. She slowly laid back down cursing from the pain. She looked around the room, noticing it wasn't her room, let alone was it in The Burrow. It was a small room with a low ceiling; dirty tiled floors, no windows, black walls, a small lamp on the wall and one door. The previous day came flooding back to Hermione and her forehead hurt from thinking so hard. She started crying from the pain in her head and heard George stir.

"H- HERMIONE!" George suddenly exclaimed with a croaky voice, "Are you alright?" George sat up quickly and crawled on his hands and knees over to Hermione.

Hermione only answered with more sobs, he was speaking so loud it was hurting her head. In reality he was only whispering, but it didn't matter, her head hurt like ten million sectumsempra's.

George sat on his knees next to her and only then could she see face. It looked horrible; he had cuts on his forehead and cheeks, a bruise over his left eye and more scratches on his neck. His hair was slightly redder than normal and Hermione realized it was red from blood. His clothes were covered in dirt and were ripped in several places. But Hermione, for some reason thought he looked amazing handsome.

Where on earth had that come from? George wasn't handsome; he was just George, one half of Fred and George. Hermione's stomach knotted up seeing his concerned expression, although she was sure she didn't look nearly as bad as him, he still seemed extremely concerned.

"Shh, it's okay, I'm here, you'll be okay." He gently rubbed his thumb over her cheek and looked into her eyes.

"Where are we?" Hermione asked, but wasn't sure if she actually wanted to know.

"In all honesty, I have no bloody idea." George stated, looking around the room, "Soon after you got knocked out they knocked me out too, but first they had some unfinished business…" George grimaced thinking about the so-called 'business'.

Hermione reached up and ran her finger over the cut on his cheek and studied his face. "I may look halfway to death, but believe me, you look twenty times worse." Hermione said.

"Thanks. That's just lovely,"

"Sorry, but it's true. What did they do to you?" Hermione asked tenderly. She reached down and grasped his hand gently, giving it a slight squeeze.

George looked down and closed his eyes tightly. "They were going to take you, and hurt you. So I put up a fight, I think you can work out the rest on your own…" A small tear left his eye and travelled down his cheek, before dropping onto his leg. "Just before I got knocked out, The Order apparated to Diagon Alley, right where we were, but the Death Eaters apparated us away before they could do anything and during the apparation I was out cold." More tears slowly seeped out his eyes. Hermione reached up and wiped them away.

"It's okay, The Order's smart enough to foil any Death Eaters plans, you know tha-"

"I saw Fred." George abruptly cut Hermione off. "He saw me and called out my name. Then he was gone." He quickly dissolved into sobs, and Hermione soon went down the same path. The two of them sat there hugging and crying for a short while before composing enough to talk more.

Hermione forgot completely about the pain in her head after talking to George. Even in the situation they were in, he was still able to make her smile.

After a while, Hermione realized something she should have thought about as soon as she regained consciousness.

"Where are the wan-"

"Gone." George once again cut her off.

"What do you mean?"

"When I woke up they weren't here, I'm not surprised they took them, we could have been out of here in a matter of minutes if we still had our wands" George explained. Hermione slumped onto the side of the wall. This was it, without their wands they were done for.

George slumped down next to Hermione on the wall and she rested her head on his shoulder, soon falling asleep again.

The two of them remained that way until a loud noise roused them. The room was flooded with light as the door opened and in walked one of '_them_'.

"Well," He chuckled, "Isn't this cute?" the Death Eater grinned with an evil glint in his eye at Hermione and George, and raised his wand.

Hermione grabbed onto George and hid her face in his chest and George buried his face in her hair, wrapped his arms around her tightly and said something Hermione would have never expected to escape George's lips, well not directed at her anyway.

"Stay safe. _I love you_" 


	5. Metaphorical Cocoon

**DISCLAIMER: I'm flattered that you would think I own such an amazing series, but alas, I don't. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, and no one else.**

**Bonjour ya'll! I'm currently on a 'just-got-3-reviews' high. Thank-you to all of my faithful readers who have put up with my atrocious grammar and somewhat faulty storylines, you are fantastic people! Okay, fair warning, there **_**may **_**be a **_**slight**_** lull in the regular updating as my year level at school has just gone into orientation for next year and it's quite hectic and blah, blah, blah. So if I don't get the chance to update, fear not, I am just extremely busy. Luckily I only have a few weeks of school left and then… HOLIDAYS! Which if you live in Australia like me, will last for approx. 6 weeks, and you know what that means, MORE WRITING TIME! My, I have already taken up a reasonably large amount of time you could have been reading my story, so, without further ado, HERE'S THE STORY! (Remember, reviews are candy to me)**

There was a noticeable lull in conversation at the dinner table at the weekly Weasley dinner at The Burrow. The only noise that could be detected by the human ear was the sound of cutlery clinking on plates and the sound of mouths opening and flapping shut, eating.

Few were present at said dinner. Charlie was in Romania, Bill and Fleur were keeping shell cottage in order, Percy was still being brainwashed by the Ministry, Mr Weasley was helping The Order detect the whereabouts of Death Eaters and Fred was upstairs, wrapped in a metaphorical cocoon.

The kidnapping of George and Hermione had shocked all, and work was being done to find them, but Fred had been hit with the hardest blow.

He felt like kicking himself for leaving George. Would he ever see his other half again? Was George even all right?

'_Of course not, you git' _Fred's conscience countered in his head, _'he's with the bloody Death Eaters for goodness sakes! He's probably dead because of you, why didn't you just grab out your wand and blast the Death Eaters to oblivion? Why not? Oh I know, because you're a bloody whimp. You let him be taken; you had the chance to do something about it, but no. You chose to leave. You're a bloody idiot! A selfish prat. That's what you are, Fred Weasley, and if George is dead, which he most likely is or will be, you're to blame. Killing your own brother, shameful.' _Fred's conscience bombarded him with insults and he once again dissolved into tears.

The other Weasley's had tried to console him, but he became fed up with people telling him they knew how he felt. How could they know how he felt? He was bloody sure no one else he knew had ever lost someone as close to him or her as George was to him. In the end, Fred had locked himself in his room, with unbreakable wards to stop well-intentioned idiots entering. It had only been a week since George and Hermione were taken but it felt like an eternity to Fred, he missed George. Sure he missed Hermione, but she wasn't as close to him as George was.

Fred worried George would do something stupid in order to protect Hermione. He knew how George felt about Hermione and if someone were to hurt her he would certainly step in, and most likely get himself seriously injured or, killed. The latter was probably the more likely situation considering these were Death Eaters we were dealing with.

'_George's dead! George's dead!' _a malicious voice chanted in Fred's head.

"STOP IT!" Fred yelled and slammed his fist into the wall, effectively creating a rather large hole.

Fred walked over to George's bed and sat down on it. He stared at the pillow, which still had the indent from George's head in it. He didn't dare touch it, for fear it may be the only physical memory left of him.

"I hope you're okay George, I miss you brother" Fred whispered aloud to George, in vain hope he would somehow hear it.

"I miss you"


	6. Reunions Will Have To Wait

**DISCLAIMER: Me? Owning Harry Potter? Pfft, yeah right.**

**Howdy neighbourino's! I know, I know, the last chapter was really short and I'm sorry, but it was necessary to explain how Fred was coping. I originally wasn't going to involve the rest of the Weasley's in the story much at all, but chocolateMnMs was wondering how Fred was and blah, blah, blah. Well anyway, I'm on a bit of a roll today, 2 chapters in one day, BOO-YA! Okay, I think I've covered everything, so, keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times and lets continue with this story! (Reviews are candy)**

The screaming. It never stopped, and in the times it did, it was replaced by a cold silence. A silence that sent shivers up your spine and chilled you to the core.

Every time George heard _her_ scream a piece of him died. Every time _she_ screamed, he wished it were he in that position. Every time he heard _Hermione_ scream he curled up in a ball and imagined the horrible things she was enduring.

He had been tortured, yes, but he knew they were less hard on him seeing as he wasn't a direct friend of Harry's. Whereas Hermione had been an accomplice in Harry's fight to defeat Voldemort.

She screamed again. Crying, yelling, shouting. They were going to torture her until she broke. Until she finally had no strength left in her. Until she was no longer a human with feelings, but an empty shell.

George cried silently, wishing they would relent and hurt him instead.

He lay there crying, trying to block out Hermione's screams of pain, for what felt like a million years, until finally, the door swung open and an unconscious Hermione was forcefully thrown onto the floor, with a thump. The bastard Death Eater kicked her in the side and laughed with glee.

"Don't you hurt her, you sadistic arse!" George threatened, but the Death Eater just laughed evilly.

"Or what? You'll hurt me, with more words?" The Death Eater mocked.

"THAT'S IT!" George attempted to lunge at the Death Eater, but with a lazy flick of the Death Eaters wand, George was blasted into the far wall, deep cuts all over him, blood cascading down his chest. Obviously a Sectumsempra had been cast.

"Have fun with your little whore, Weasel", The Death Eater mocked turning and walking casually out the door, locking it, once again leaving George and Hermione in their chamber.

"H-Hermione" George croaked, making the blood from his wounds seep out a little more. He didn't care how bad a condition he was in, Hermione was obviously worse. He crawled over to her figure lying feebly on the floor.

"Hermione?" He tentatively touched her over and she flinched away. "It's alright Hermione, it's only me, George," He said tenderly.

Hermione rolled over and winced, George saw her face and almost died.

A bruise, cuts, grazes, everything you could imagine. The rest of her body looked pretty much the same. George imagined he looked similar after the Sectumsempra.

"Oh my goodness, George!" Hermione croakily said, concerned. She slowly sat up, wincing and grimacing, "What happened to you?" she asked surveying his cuts.

"Oh nothing, don't worry about it…" George trailed off, more worried about Hermione's wellbeing.

"George, you're seriously hurt" The bleeding had stopped and the wounds had clot, and Hermione was cleaning it with her scarf she happened to be wearing the day they were taken.

George thanked Hermione for helping him and started fixing her wounds.

The two of them continued this routine every day. Tortured, thrown back in the chamber, cleaning wounds, eating what little food they were given, talking, and eventually falling asleep in each other's arms. The next day the cycle would start again.

The pair had no real sense of time and date as they were in a room with no windows and had to assume they had been here for a little over 3 weeks. Still missing their families, neither really was broaching the subject of how, or when, they would attempt to escape this awful place. Both would loose touch with reality at times and fall into hysterics before being consoled by the other.

One particular day, or night, hard to tell, a Death Eater entered the room and set down the tray of cold soup with stale bread and dirty water, Hermione and George cowering in the corner. George didn't even attempt to injure the Death Eaters anymore; he knew how powerful they were, and how pointless the activity was.

The Death Eater set down the tray and instead of swiftly exiting the room, he walked over to Hermione and George. George instinctively wrapped his arms around Hermione as the Death Eater approached. He came to a sudden halt approximately 3 feet from the pair, and bent down, removing his mask.

Hermione took one look into those, cold, silver eyes. Eyes that had witnessed things no person should ever see. And knew instantly who they belonged to.

"Granger. Weasel" _He _stated simply.

"Dr-Dra-" Hermione stuttered,

"Yes, yes, I think we will have to skip the reunions for now, if you want to get out of here quickly" He said quickly, in a low whisper.

"Draco?" The two said fast.

"I thought I made myself clear; reunions will have to wait, now get up." Draco said loosing patience.

The pair hesitated in getting up, wondering if Draco had ulterior motives.

"I'm not going to let you two get killed, trust me, I have changed. Now please. Trust me" Draco said sincerely.

George and Hermione sensed the sincerity in Draco's voice. Even if he hadn't changed and they were walking out into certain death, it was a welcome change from sitting cramped in that chamber for 3 weeks.

"This way" Draco ordered and led the two out the door that had blocked them from the outside world for so long. He led them down a long, tiled hallway. No windows, much like the chamber. Draco moved swiftly down the corridor, Hermione and George following quickly behind, George clutched Hermione's hand and she reciprocated.

Draco led them through the deserted building and eventually into the woods. Amazingly, undetected.

"This is where I leave you now. Be safe" Draco bid them farewell and turned to leave before a hand stopped him. He turned around to see Hermione and George smiling at him, dishevelled. Unexpectedly, Hermione leaped forward and embraced a stunned Draco, silently thanking him.

Draco managed to crack a smile at the two before nodding and turning on his heel, walking away, and apparating away.

"Bloody hell. I owe him my life" George stated, utterly amazed that the nasty boy from Hogwarts had grown and changed dramatically.

Hermione smiled, "Ditto".


End file.
